One month ago I wrote about a new cookie law, already approved in the EU, which would require user consent before a website is allowed to place cookies on the users computer.
Even though the law was actually already approved, it was not carried into effect yet and thank god for that. Had it been, many online businesses would have lost a big chunk of their income through advertising and affiliate sales, since no ordinary Internet user would ever allow placing a cookie to “track him” to a certain affiliate, in case he would eventually go and buy a product.
Long story short, it seems that in the original wording of Act, somebody had issues distinguishing between cookies and adware, which is why cookies also ended up being included, according British law site Out-law.com.
It’s still uncertain how it will be implemented in local laws throughout Europe, if everything will just stay as it is now or if they will require browsers to change settings to “reject cookies by default”, but ask users upon installation/launch if they wan’t to accept cookies once and for all.
I hope we can continue like we do now, where all browsers allow cookies per default but you can change the settings if you like. If browsers were to ask users whether or not to always allow cookies, I’m afraid most of them will say “no thanks” and that would be bad for advertisers, webmasters, affiliates and the users themselves.
Bottom line, the cookie law has crumbled and is no longer as feared as when it was initially approved.
Even if it did come into effect, I’m sure there would be some bright spark out their who would come out with something similar.
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I think that some people would get annoyed after a bit of most websites asking them if they wanted to let a site download a cookie. And I know from personal experience of browsing with cookies off that it doesn’t go so well either, as a lot of sites need cookies to save your preferences and such. So I think a lot of people would still go back in and enable cookies. I’m sure websites that need them to run will ultimately suggest that users do so.
~ Kristi
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You’re totally right, Kikolani. Cookies ain’t all bad, many of them actually improves user experiences 🙂 I’m glad at least it didn’t turn out as bad as it looked in the beginning, with this cookie law.
Thanks for visiting & commenting!
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Thank God! That cookie law was half-baked, at best.
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